Sunday, October 31, 2010

The first Wall Street was one in a fairly long string of excellent Oliver Stone movies (Platoon still ranks in the very top (3?) of the best war movies of all time.) Wall Street gave us Gordon Gekko and a perfect allegory for the '80s' banker. The film was sharp, has memorable lines (many a businessman has put "Greed—for lack of a better word—is good" on his Facebook page) and was an accurate depiction of the workings of Wall Street.

The sequel is another matter. Set around 2008, right before the shit hits the fan for the financial crises, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps resurrects Michael Douglas as the infamous Gordon Gekko and brings in Shia LaBeouf as his soon-to-be son-in-law/protégé. Douglas leaves prison after an eight-year stint (plus six in court) and tries to redeem himself by penning a book aptly name Is Greed Good? and going on a lecture circuit of how the economy is heading for the shitter and it's everyone's fault. LaBeouf plays a successful young trader trying to keep investment inside his baby, a company attempting fusion. His girlfriend, playing Gekko's estranged daughter, is Carey Mulligan, who also runs an up-and-coming liberal news site. They get engaged, but not before LaBeouf's mentor throws himself under a subway train because his faulting investment bank won't be bailed out by a consortium of the Federal Reserve and other banks, led by the new villain played by Josh Brolin. The rest of the film revolves around LaBeouf trying to stick it to Brolin, and trying to enlist Douglas to help him (for the cost of causing a reconciliation between father and daughter.)

In short, Money Never Sleeps isn't half as smart as the original. It's essentially a polemic and pseudo-documentary of the current crisis, trying to show Americans how stupid everyone has been and how the guys at the top were the dumbest of all. (Susan Sharandon plays LaBeouf's mother, a real estate agent, who clings to the idea that she can sell her oversized, overpriced mansions in a few weeks. LaBeouf repeatedly gives her large sums of cash, for which she pleads like a pathetic junky.) Most of the characters go on long tirades that seem like they were ripped from The Wall Street Journal or something Michael Lewis wrote for Vanity Fair.

Besides that, the actual quality of the film is pretty low. There are a plethora of entirely unnecessary cut-scenes, crappy CGI, and plenty of graphics that annoy rather than enhance. It's like Stone has forgotten how to direct and reverted to some eighteen-year-old with a Final Cut Pro mindset. The attempts at being smart with the graphics goes the way of George Lucas, in that they interfere with the story rather than enhance it. According to Wikipedia, Carey Mulligan talked Stone into augmenting Winnie Gekko's role, a mistake that Stone should have shut down when it was first suggested.

Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps only partially succeeds in what it set out to do. Most of all, it's just like it's title: a cast off bit of dialogue from the original.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

For those of you who have come to expect that Apatow films are the best comedies that Hollywood now has to offer, here's a new treat for you. Get Him to the Greek is a spin-off of the earlier film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where Russell Brand plays the same character as rockstar Aldous Snow and Jonah Hill plays the same character he always has: a fat whiny Jew.

The movie starts with Brand releasing a new Album, African Child, which turns out to be a huge flops and essentially ends his career. He goes into a tailspin of drugs and abuse for a few years and loses his son and girlfriend—played by Rose Byrne. Meanwhile, Hill works for a record company run by Sean Combs (who is obviously channeling Chris Rock for the part) and lives with his doctor-to-be girlfriend, Elisabeth Moss. Hill pitches the idea that Brand has a concert at the Greek Theatre in LA on the tenth-year anniversary of a particularly memorable show. Brand and Combs agree, Hill is dispatched to London to bring Brand back (to be his nanny.) On their way to LA, Brand and Hill get into all sorts of hijinks together.

Get Him to the Greek is a film that provides some easy laughs without much substance. The film is typical Apatow-fare, with plenty of drinking, sex, drugs, and crazy misdeeds, but also love, redemption, finding strength, finding a way, and self-discovery. While there are some truly hilarious parts and lines from this film, it doesn't really stand out as a particularly great flick. Much of the humor revolves around substance abuse and alcohol consumption (Oh, look, they're drinking absinthe and then jumping around ecstatically.) The film could have done with a little more work, a little more fine-tuning. I must admit though, the best parts of this film are the two music videos released by Rose Byrne's character, Jackie Q (view them on YouTube.)

Although Sunshine came out in 2007, I feel compelled to write about it, because: A) I watched it just recently and B) It has largely (and undeservedly) been ignored. Danny Boyle's other works (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 28 Days/Weeks Later) have all been watched by everyone who has listed 'Watching movies' in their activities section on their facebook pages. Sunshine was largely forgotten.

My personal view on Boyle's work is that he is the spiritual brother of Darren Aronofsky. Beyond their wonderfully detailed and shot films, both directors have the ability to get their actors to rip out their humanity and place it in front of the audience. No one walks away from theaters complaining about bad acting or poor characters. Usually they walk away in a daze after the visual assault they just endured.

Sunshine isn't a particularly original movie in the strictest sense. The plot follows a crew of eight about a spaceship, the Icarus II, headed to the sun. The sun is dying and their mission is to drop off a massive bomb to re-ignite it. They are the second ship charged with this mission, since the first went missing seven years earlier. The Icarus II passes Mercury, when they pick up the distress signal of the Icarus I. Mishaps ensue. Not exactly the most original plot line in the Sci-Fi genre, but neither was 28 Days Later. When boiled down, 28 Days Later was just another zombie movie; but instead of focusing of gross-out effects and creepiness, 28 Days Later was artfully shot and focused on basic movie points like acting, character development, and a plot that actually went somewhere. Same with Sunshine.
While the plot may seem to borrow from films like Event Horizon and Alien the film is wonderfully shot, has a atmosphere, and brings Sci-Fi out from the ComCons and to the mainstream. The ensemble cast includes (but not limited to) Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, and Chris Evans—most known for his work in The Fantastic Four as the flaming dude. Everyone gives amazing performances, which is notable in a genre that usually ranks only above horror in acting skills. Think about it, when was the last time you really watched a horror flick in which everyone gave outstanding performances (The Silence of the Lambs?)
I must admit that one of my hobbies is watching crime shows (whodunit-types) and finding flaws in the science that they present. Now, I don't know too much about astrophysics, so I couldn't really pick out a lot of scientific flaws in the film that irked some others. But that's not the reason to watch it. What gives Sunshine its weight, its tension, its grip on the viewer, is the way it creates the atmosphere of being in space. In space, you are confined in a small space with the same people all the time and tensions rise. Not only that, if you make the slightest mistake or miscalculation, you're pretty much done for. There's no rescue mission coming to chopper in and pull you out; there are two ways to die: by fire or ice. When faced with calamity, you're probably going to have to face the music and say, "Game over, man!"

Saturday, October 2, 2010

More and more action movies, especially those involving spies and government assassins, are taking pages from the Bourne series. Salt is no exception, trying to break the mold for action movies that was so impenetrably cast by films such as the Mission Impossible and James Bond franchises (i.e. ultra-unrealistic and hackneyed action, special effects up the wazoo, plot and character development are secondary considerations.)

There is a certain brand of movies (Taken, Ninja Assassin, Salt) that are best watched in places like airplanes or on long car trips. Maybe it's because intercontinental airline travel is so devoid of stimulation beyond the snoring fat lady next to you and the constant roar of the engines that make these movies perfect for watching aboard an eight-hour flight. They are so fantastical, so laughable and fun, such an escape from the darkened cabin. I couldn't imagine watching them elsewhere (although, I did watch Salt in my living room.) An environment such as an airplane makes you so crave mindless entertainment that you'll excuse the gigantic plot holes, the half-assed acting, and the over-used special effects.

Angelina Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA spook who, of course, specializes in everything from kicking ass to taking names. Her superior, Ted Winter (played by Liv Schreiber), is a hurly burly who puts his upmost faith in her and tries to pull her back onto the reservation. The film doesn't take any time wasting around with backstory (that's filled in slightly throughout the film by way of flashback), and plunges straight into the midst of it. Jolie is saved from a North Korean prison at the behest of her future husband, August Deihl. Years later (on her anniversary), a man walks comes into the CIA claiming to be a Russian spy. During his debriefing, he says he's Vassily Orlov (Daniel Olbrychski), and is dying of cancer, then claims that Jolie is actually a Russian sleeper spy and there's a huge Russian ploy to bring back the Soviet Union and bring down the United States. Chiwetel Ejiofor, a counter-intelligence office wants to learn more and keep Jolie under lock and key. Jolie takes off with the CIA host (and her former boss) in hot pursuit.Salt is essentially a gigantic chase scene interspersed with some flashbacks and rest, but it grabs ahold and doesn't let go. It's action-packed and full of Angelina Jolie looking sexy as she beats the shit out faceless G-men (she actually, no lie, takes off her panties to throw over a security camera, then blows some fuckers away.)
Returning to an earlier point, Salt might be fun to watch, but don't watch it expecting a smart, clever movie. While the acting is almost half-way decent, the plot is pretty much absurd. The film is quickly paced, always keeping the viewed on the edge of his seat, guessing as to who Jolie is, what her real motives are, and who everyone else is as well. There are twists and turns, but each time a new character is introduced or a new plot twist is revealed, it's almost hilariously bad (numerous times I yelled out loud (laughing) "WHAT?! This is ridiculous!!!") You might ask yourself why so many trained operatives are so slow to react when Jolie pistol whips them; or why the police don't bring helicopters to help chase her; or why the Russians would think that a crazy, convoluted plan, years in the making, would ever work—but don't. That takes away half the fun. But then again, you ought to be watching this because Angelina Jolie is looking fit and thin thrashing her way though loads of armed men. Now, next time you are on a cross-country trip, you have something to keep you occupied for few hours.